Start things and see where they go

Have you ever made a plan? Have you ever revised that plan? And have you ever kept revising the plan without putting it into action? I know that I have. Often. 

It's a stubborn habit that pervades our lives. Lots of good ideas that never amount to anything, all because we want the plan to be perfect. We want some sort of guarantee that a plan will succeed before we do anything about it. There's a problem with this mindset - nothing ever gets done. 

Sometimes it's the big things in life. And that's when the hesitation is understandable. But a start needs to be made. Plans are wonderful and they are necessary. A plan allows us to make reasonable preparations, allocate resources, time and energy. With a good plan we know what we're in for. But we still need to start, otherwise even the best plan in the world is for nothing. Plan, start, and then make adjustments when under way. 

It's a good strategy for both big and small issues. It's also good for things that are almost irrelevant, such as our hobbies. 

The page below is from my sketchbook. I had the date confused when I wrote it in the top left corner, so don't get too excited - I haven't built a time machine. 

From my sketchbook.

When I sat down to draw this morning, I merely wanted to make some marks, so I practised some hatching and patterns. After that I drew two scribble doodles. That's when I throw down some random lines, try to imagine something in the chaos, and then make something out of it. Finally, I picked up a brush pen and repeated the exercise. From a couple of lines, I could imagine a sail so that's what I drew. From there I proceeded to draw a ship around the sail. Then came the ocean, the sky, and finally the island. I like the end result. And it all began with a minimal plan - start with something random and see where it goes. 

The consequences of failure in a sketchbook are minimal. Although it doesn't feel that way to many aspiring artists. But getting started with what we already have works in a lot of situations. So, the next time you are paralyzed in the midst of planning something, try something different - try starting things and see where they go.